SkillsUSA Hawaii
SkillsUSA Mission Statement
"SkillsUSA is America's proud champion of the skilled trades. Our mission is to empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders and responsible community members."
“Preparing For Leadership in the World of Work”
Establishing and meeting the needs and goals of our students through SkillsUSA:
SkillsUSA is considered a co-curricular program that depends on teachers to teach not only content-specific knowledge and skills but also personal development skills in order to prepare students for the world of work. SkillsUSA has established a curriculum specifically designed for personal and workplace development called “Career Essentials."
The Career Essentials curriculum is not specifically designed for SkillsUSA, but units of study are encouraged for all students regardless of being enrolled in a CTE course. In the figure, you will find a graphic showing the relationship between a student's personal skill development and his/her career preparation for entering the world of work.
History and Background
Established in 1965 and headquartered in Leesburg Virginia. SkillsUSA was originally named VICA which stood as the acronym for The Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. The establishment of this CTSO served as a co-curricular educational organization to serve the students in connecting Business and Industry in America to academics in our nation's schools and to develop a “World Class Workers and responsible citizens in America.” Thus our organization motto was established.
SkillsUSA in Hawaii
VICA was established in Hawaii in 1982 by Mr. Rodney Park, a Building and Construction teacher at Kohala High School. Mr. Park saw VICA, or what is now known as SkillsUSA, as a vehicle to expose his students to various career opportunities beyond their community and our state. He strongly believed in exposing students to take a look at the world of work and the multitude of careers from a global perspective.
In the first few years of VICA in Hawaii, only Building and Construction programs participated. The VICA contests rotated to various school shops. The first Contest open for public viewing was held in 1985 at the Kona Shopping Center. The expansion of membership in SkillsUSA Hawaii has expanded to encompass the majority of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) content offered in our schools in order to promote CTE studies to our younger students and to strategically increase the high school enrollment in CTE courses.
In 1997 the expansion of SkillsUSA Hawaii would be introduced into the middle school program in Hawaii. Participation in SkillsUSA Hawaii would begin with four schools located on the islands of Maui and Oahu and it grew to as many as 10 schools. SkillsUSA Hawaii offers 17 contests for members in good standing with National SkillsUSA. SkillsUSA Hawaii membership is open to a public school student who is presently enrolled in a CTE course related to the competitive event. SkillsUSA Contests offered for student members include: Automotive Technology, Architectural Drafting, Prepared Speech, Team Technology Challenges, amongst many more. Hawaii students have represented Hawaii very well at the National Leadership Skills Conference by winning quite a few awards, including the recognition of Mr. Rodney Park as the National Advisor of the Year--not bad for a State that sends between 14-20 students and advisors to a conference of thousands. This is example of what SkillsUSA strives for . . . "quality of work."